VALPARAISO. 295 



paths and new flowers. Poor fellow ! he seems more delighted at 

 his renewed liberty even than I am at mine. The charm of a re- 

 covered health has been so often felt that one wonders it should 

 delight again ; but 



" Sans doute que le Dieu qui nous rend l'existence, 



A l'heureuse convalescence, 

 Pour de nouveaux plaisirs donne de nouveaux sens ; 



A ses regards impatiens, 

 Le cahos fuit ; tout nait, la lumiere commence ; 



Tout brille des feux du printemps ; 

 Les plus simples objets, le chant d'une fauvette, 

 Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois, 



La fraicheur d'une violette, 



Mille spectacles, qu'autrefois 



On voyoit avec nonchalance 

 Transportent aujourd'hui, presentent des apas 



Inconnus a l'indifference, 



Et que la foule ne voit pas." 



I cannot doubt that these beautiful lines of Gresset were in Grey's 

 mind, when he wrote his ode on recovering from sickness : the feel- 

 ings are native in every heart, however, and one wants only the 

 power of poetical expression to clothe them in verse. But inde- 

 pendent of all this, the neighbourhood of Valparaiso is peculiarly 

 beautiful at this time. The shrubs have all been refreshed by the 

 rains ; the ground is covered with a profusion of flowers ; the fruit 

 is just ripening ; and the climate, always agreeable, is now, in this 

 spring-time, delicious. No poet ever feigned for his Tempe a more 

 charming sky than that of Chile ; and there is a sweetness and soft- 

 ness in the air that soothes the spirits and doubles every other 

 pleasure. 



c 2d. — We have had a great many visitors, and of course some 

 news, the most interesting of which is, that the government is in 

 earnest in its intentions to pay the squadron. One half of the pay- 

 ments will, it is said, be made in money, the other half in bills upon 

 the custom-house. Lord Cochrane arrived from the city last night, 

 and is pitching tents by the sea-shore beyond the fort for himself, 

 because he does not choose to accept a house from government, in 



